One of the albums that has been in my listening rotation for a while now is the debut album of a symphonic rock/progressive rock band from the Netherlands Minor Giant, and with each listen I like the album more and more.
The first seeds of the band were sown in 2010 when at 16 years old the founder of the band Rindert Lammers composed and recorded several instrumental symphonic progressive rock tracks. Then in 2011 Rindert posted an instrumntal demo to Soundcloud, soon thereafter vocals from Christiaan Bruin (Sky Architect, Chris) were added to the track. The second seeds were sown when Rindert sent out a call for musicians to join him to record an album! The first musician to respond was drummer Roy Post, who became a co-leader of the band. Post handled the organization and communication end of the band’s business allowing Lammers to focus creating the music! Finally the seeds germinated when bass player Harry den Hartog (ex-PBII), guitar player/vocalist Jordi Repkes and keyboard player Jos Heijmans joined the duo of Lammers and Post. After meeting on the studio and working on two tracks, the band the group clicked and Minor Giant was formed!!
The band, moving on and made their debut as the opening act of the first Progmotion Festival in September of 2012 and moved on to record their first album On the Road. The album was in turn, released last month (June 2014), which is when I started to listen to the album! The current line-up of the band is…
Rindert Lammers – keyboards
Roy Post – drums and percussion
Rik van Dommelen – bass guitar and vocals
Jordi Repkes – guitar and vocals
Jos Heijmans – keyboards and vocals
The original bassist for the band Harry den Hartog left the band after the album was recorded.
On the Road was recorded at various studios including The Pitt Studio in Boskoop amd engineered by Ruud Rijnbeek and Gerben Klazinga (Knight Area). Six tracks, that vary in length from three to fifteen minutes, make up the album. The band says this about the album:
‘On The Road’ deals with the different roads people choose in life. The lyrics are about the hope and strength everybody needs in our travels through life. The final track ‘The Last Road’ concludes this spiritual voyage, and after revisiting some themes from the previous tracks, the album concludes with an optimistic end full of hope for the future.
Based on the album that this young band has produced, I think that their future looks very bright! So Check Them Out!!
Here’s the title track of the album “On the Road”……
